The Threat to Secularism and the Republic Continues!

On July 15, 2016, FETÖ, a cult organization, attempted a coup to destroy the secular and democratic
state structure of the Republic of Turkey.
Those responsible for this bloody and dark process must be brought to justice, and the state and
society must not experience such a threat and danger again.
Our unforgettable President Prof. Dr. Türkan Saylan was one of the first people to announce to the
public that the political powers in our country turned a blind eye to the sects and community
structures; and that the sects and communities were getting stronger and aiming to seize first the
state institutions and then the whole state. With the responsibility of being an Atatürkist, republican
and patriotic intellectual, ÇYDD President Prof. Dr. Türkân Saylan shared her predictions in the
Politics Square program she attended on June 19, 1999 and said:
"There are instructions on how to take over the Republic of Turkey from someone who is
understood to have serious mental health problems demonstrated by his attire and utterances. As
a faculty member, I see the end product of this behavior; I see how our students are brainwashed in
the homes of the people who follow this individual. We have children who are being dragged into
becoming a devotee of such a person to take over the world of the future. Turkey is becoming
besieged right in front of our eyes. If Turkey is a modern, secular country, if all of these people have
some intelligence, they must see that ‘the medal has two sides’.
The most significant damage comes from politicians. Politicians think of the basic principles of the
Republic only as articles of an oath to be read and they are always in a race to somehow make
contact with the people of the communities and the sects to get the most votes from them. There
are also politicians who say, "there are good sects". The extent of the situation needs to be known. I
must also add that I don't know what will happen to us after today's speech."
Türkan Saylan had foreseen the magnitude of the danger exactly 17 years ago and warned the
government and the public. After this speech, together with the patriotic and enlightened people
and institutions of our country, Türkân Saylan and ÇYDD became a target of FETÖ.
In order to construct the future socially, it is necessary to understand history and learn from it.
Every day in our country, it is in the news that another sect and community is getting cadres in the
public sector, that there is the attempt to direct social life by these groups or that they are embraced
and supported by the government and public administrators. Based on the press news, sects and
communities are competing to obtain cadres in the important state institutions such as the judiciary,
security, army and education and we see that no lessons are learned in this regard from the painful
experiences of our history. This situation indicates that the basic principles, secularism in particular,
of our Republic, which are set in Article 2 of the Constitution, are under threat. While it is not even
certain that all FETÖ cadres in the state have been cleared out, the formation of new cadres of other
sects and communities increases the seriousness of the threat and the danger.

State administrators should not make distinctions between good and bad or harmful and harmless
of the sects and communities. Our political history, starting from the years of the War of
Independence, shows us that all sects and communities are a threat and danger to secularism,
independence and the Republic, and all must be closed down immediately! With the closure of sects
and communities, the exploitation and abuse of religion will be prevented, the sheikhdom-shikhdom
order will fade, and the culture of allegiance that restricts free thought will disappear.
We know that the modern individual and society will only come to life in a country where there is a
secular and democratic social order, republicanism, the rule of law, rights and freedoms.
In the light of Atatürk's revolution and principles, as ÇYDD we have been working for 34 years to
achieve this goal and we will continue our work with the same determination without ever stopping.